Issues in Human Rights Web Archiving


Author

Robert Wolven [bio]

Formats


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Abstract

As the volume of information appearing solely in digital form continues to grow, libraries and archives are turning more attention to archiving web content as a means of ensuring its long-term availability. Developing reliable, sustainable models for web harvesting and archiving poses technical challenges, and some major issues around rights and permissions. Applying these models to a targeted domain such as human rights also raises familiar issues in new forms -- issues of selection, description, organization, and presentation. Addressing these challenges will also present new opportunities for integrating web content with print and archival collections. Web content from human rights organizations, because of its global diffusion and fragility, may be especially difficult to collect and preserve on a large scale. Columbia University has begun to explore these issues, their impact on traditional library and archival roles, and the potential for sharing benefits and costs across research institutions.


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CHRDR Conference: 4-6 October 2007
Human Rights Archives and Documentation:
Meeting the Needs of Research, Teaching,
Advocacy and Social Justice


Selected Proceedings

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